ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

"Groovin' Wes"

A Musical Expression of Admiration for Wes Montgomery

“Lots of guitarists can imitate Wes Montgomery, I wanted to
pay tribute to him with my own voice”
—Terrence Brewer

Following QuintEssential, his third album for the Strong Brew Music label, San Francisco based jazz guitarist Terrence Brewer pays homage to the man who set the standard for modern jazz guitar—Wes Montgomery.

After receiving both regional and national acclaim for his
all original albums, The Calling: Volume One and Volume
Two (2006) and QuintEssential (2008 - 12 weeks on the
JazzWeek album charts peaking at #17), Brewer is set to light up the jazz scene once again with Groovin’ Wes, music written and popularized by one of jazz guitar’s greatest heroes, Wes Montgomery.

On Groovin’ Wes, Brewer is joined by a familiar cast: B3
organist Wil Blades (John Lee Hooker, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Idris Muhammed, Stanton Moore, winner of ‘Downbeat’ magazines “Rising Star” poll) and drummer Micah McClain (Red Rodney, David Baker and James Moody). Both Blades and McClain are veterans when it comes to working with Brewer; Blades is featured on The Calling: Volume Two and McClain has held the drum chair on two of Brewer’s previous albums, The Calling Volume One and QuintEssential.

Recorded by chief engineer Stephen Hart (McCoy Tyner,
Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Branford Marsalis, Flora and Airto) at the world famous Fantasy Studios in Berkeley California, Groovin’ Wes will, take you on a journey; rejuvenating the classic Guitar, Organ, Drums trio sound like never before. From burnin’ up-tempo swing to funky Soul-Jazz backbeats, Groovin’ Wes is a masterpiece.

“A naturally gifted player with a beautiful, warm tone and
a melodic penchant, his playing is eminently pleasing…”
—Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times.

Brewer is the recipient of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, ‘Artist of the Year” Award and the winner of San Francisco Weekly’s, ‘Best Jazz Artist’ Award. Dan King of the San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed, Brewer is, “the reason the Bay area jazz scene looks promising”.